Gay Jesus film sparks complaints even though it doesn’t exist

<br />Rumors about a film based on a gay Jesus have turned out to be a hoax (Picture: Reuters)

Rumors about a film that portrays Jesus and his disciples as gay men has sparked a number of angry complaints to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) – even though it doesn’t exist.

Speculation has been rife that Terrence McNally’s controversial play Corpus Christi has been turned into a movie.

But BBFC senior examiner Craig Lapper insisted it was untrue: ‘I think it was a bit of an internet hoax several years ago suggesting a film was being made of the play in which Jesus and his disciples were portrayed as homosexuals, and I can remember replying to people concerned about this blasphemous film back in the late 1990s.

‘And this year again, for whatever reason, there was another spike in people writing to us to insist that we ban this terrible blasphemous film.

‘We just had to write back and say, “This film doesn’t exist”.’

The BBFC received six complaints accusing the film of being blasphemous and offensive in 2011 and another two this year.

But the hoax movie is still lagging behind Christopher Nolan’s second Batman offering, The Dark Knight, as the most complained about film in the last 10 years.

The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader and Heath Ledger as The Joker, has received more than 300 complaints from people who claim it was too dark and violent for its 12A rating.